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Project ECHO
* **Liberators-830A *Atlas Technologies|purpose = *Upgrade the ULC's arsenal and fleet of ACS-1 Citadels. *Upgrade the ULC's information technology network *Upgrade the ULC's heavy magitek weaponry|locations = *Unnamed Citadel drydocks in Eastern Washington State *San Francisco *Phoenix Complex *Atlantes Center Base|leader = Unknown|sub-projects = LUOS|participants = *Jack Harper *Lucius Mallory *Tyler Cheng *Mason Peters}}Project Echo was a classified ULC program to upgrade numerous ships of its ACS-1 Citadel fleet, intended to modernize its arsenal, especially in the wake of the 2029 Union City terror incident. Unbeknownst to many members, this project was compromised by CLAW agents who had infiltrated the ULC and were using this project to further their own ends, several of them taking high security positions within the Project itself and using its computer upgrades to siphon sensitive data from the ULC command network. The project came to an abrupt halt with the eruption of the ULC-CLAW War. Many aspects of the modernization program were not implemented, but the successful elements of Echo were eventually rolled out to all Coalition chapters. History Project Echo was planned sometime in late 2027, and began immediately in 2028. Atlas Advanced Technologies, Xaikon Heavy Industries, and Lockheed Martin were said to be among the military manufacturers involved in the joint program to increase the efficiency of the United States's tactical operations and defense systems. 2029 At Atlantes Center Base, the Citadel-class aerial battleship ULCS Golden Eagle belonging to Liberators-830A was one of the ships selected for the weapons upgrade sweep, the refit taking several months throughout the 2029 year. Regional Overseer Lucius Mallory (secretly a CLAW agent tasked with implanting a backdoor into the Echo development campaign) boasted that the augmented and improved weapons systems, linked by the ship's battle computer, could 'engage and eliminate a thousand hostiles a minute', and would ensure Coalition victory against CLAW. Ultimately, the installation of Liberty Unified Operating System (LUOS) allowed CLAW agents to copy, or 'echo' data off of the Coalition's sensitive servers, compromising the ULC's security. With the Coalition's command and control systems compromised, CLAW infiltrators were able to catch Atlantes Center personnel off guard by turning their own defenses against them in an attempt to hijack the Golden Eagle to commandeer and capture it for CLAW. However, they were thwarted thanks to the combined efforts of Liberators-830B and Liberators-597. Controversy erupted after the crisis was over. Project Echo's name was tarnished, but its upgrades proved too expensive to remove even if Unified Command had entertained the idea of scrapping upgraded hardware and software. The LUOS operating system was re-evaluated and secured with a patch removing the backdoor, and was rolled out, albeit not on time, to the rest of the Coalition. However, hardware upgrades for other vehicles and aerial battleships were canceled; ships on the East coast such as the [[ULCS Stormbreaker|ULCS Stormbreaker]] were not equipped with the Echo upgrades, resulting in severe consequences down the line when it was destroyed by the Order of Morgana's Landmass. 2030 During the Langford cognitohazard attacks in 2030, Project Echo's upgrades, left still installed were said to be instrumental in augmenting the Golden Eagle's combat ability against the Landmass, increasing its combat outcome projection from a costly attack to a reasonable chance of victory. Mallory's claim that the Eagle's weapon systems could engage a 'thousand hostiles a minute' would be put to the test as the Swarm in fact contained up to a thousand or even more units in any given engagement. The Golden Eagle's main cannons batteries, several times more powerful than their predecessors' due to the upgrades, would also prove to increase the chance of victory significantly. One of LUOS's subroutines was a diagnostic and repair protocol called Talon, which later proved to be highly effective at combating the Langford virus, adapting constantly and using its own tactics against it. In addition, LUOS was ironically one of the most secure operating systems during a worldwide crisis that saw the infection of nearly 85 to 95 percent of computers; Kozan Greymoul, the architect behind the attacks, claimed that his analysis of LUOS revealed that it was at the minimum 35% harder to infect compared to devices not running it. The arrival of the [[ULCS Cascadia|ULCS Cascadia]] and [[ULCS Presido|ULCS Presido]], both also Gen-III Citadel-class aerial battleships, in the final stages of the battle swung victory into the Coalition's favor. These ships were also fitted with Echo combat upgrades, enabling them to work in tandem with the Eagle to unleash a devastating assault that permanently ended the Order of Morgana cult and their Swarm weapons of mass destruction. Category:Projects